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MADISON, Wis. — Authorities are continuing to comb the area for clues on Thursday after a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student was found dead in her apartment on West Doty Street.

VIDEO: Watch The Report|VIDEO: Neighbors React To DeathThe victim, identified as Brittany Sue Zimmermann, was a UW junior from Marshfield. She was majoring in medical microbiology and immunology. Her boyfriend found her body in their apartment at a two-flat house on Wednesday afternoon.Police haven’t ruled out the possibility that it was a random attack. The exact cause of death hasn’t been released, but investigators said that Zimmermann’s death appears suspicious, WISC-TV reported.Authorities said that the investigation is focused on the residence in the 500 block of West Doty and cordoned off part of the street early Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday, investigators have delayed garbage pickup in the West Doty Street area and are searching nearby garbage bins. Police said that garbage pickup in the 500 blocks of Bassett and Main has been frozen for the time being by police as they attempt to search for evidence.

One refuse hauler has dumped his load of garbage at a Madison Streets garage facility and officers in hazmat suits are expecting to go through it shortly, searching for any potential evidence, WISC-TV reported.Police are also continuing to search the house where her body was found.Zimmermann’s family has been contacted and allowed police to release her name and picture in hopes that it will prompt people to come forward with more information about her death.Madison police said that they have concluded that her boyfriend isn’t a suspect in this case. They said he continues to be very helpful in providing information to the detective team.Meanwhile, authorities are urging university students and downtown residents to be vigilant about their safetyUW Dean of Students Lori Berquam urged those on campus to take advantage of the safety resources available, including the Safewalk and Saferide programs.”I think together we can support the Zimmermann family and Brittany’s friends as they go through and process this tragic situation. But we as a community can also come together to not allow something like this to happen again,” Berquam said.Dane County Coroner John Stanley conducted an autopsy of Zimmermann on Thursday afternoon and ruled that her death was a homicide. According to a news release, he attributed her death to “a complexity of traumatic injuries.” He declined to specify the type or number of injuries that Zimmermann sustained.Zimmermann’s death is the city’s second homicide this year. Joel Marino was fatally stabbed at his south side home during the day in January. No one has been arrested in that homicide.UW officials said that a memorial vigil for Zimmermann has been scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Sunday on Library Mall. UW-Madison Dean of Students Lori Berquam will lead the ceremony, along with student representatives from Associated Students of Madison, the Wisconsin Union Directorate and the Union Council, according to a UW news release.Authorities said that anyone with information about Zimmermann’s death should contact Crime Stoppers at 608-266-6014.Stay tuned to WISC-TV and Channel 3000 for continuing coverage.

http://www.libreopinion.com/members/standarteslc/race05.htmlApproximately 34 million acts were committed in the U.S. in 1992–about 94,000 crimes daily. This is a Justice Department estimate. We don’t know the exact number, because many, if not most, crimes are not reported. We do know, however, that the national crime rate-crimes per capita-has tripled over the past 30 years, and at least 71 percent of all violent crimes involve some kind of economic loss.

Distorted Statistics Prior to 1986, Hispanics were classified as a distinct and separate racial group. Not anymore. The FBI and U.S. Census Bureau no longer distinguish between Hispanics (who are actually Spanish speaking Indians for the most part) and Whites; their crimes are lumped together in one ethnic pot. The 22,354,059 Hispanics living in the U.S. do not exist, at least not in the ethnic sense when it comes to the FBI compiling criminal statistics for mainstream and news organizations. Included by the FBI as “WHITES” is not only Hispanics, but also West Asians, Jews, Middle Easterners, North Africans, Iranians, Iraquis, Libyans, Palestinians, and refugees from the former Soviet Union. The question that immediately comes to mind is: “Why would the FBI and the U.S. Census Bureau classify persons of Hispanic origin as being white?” The answer might surprise you. The FBI and the U.S. Census Bureau, along with mainstream media purposely distort criminal statistics and conveniently classify Mexican-Americans as white because they do not want the American public to know the truth–that Blacks are responsible for committing the vast majority of crimes here in the United States. For example, in 1993, there were 20,343 Americans murdered: Blacks, who compromise 12 percent of the U.S. population, committed 11,686 or a whopping 58 percent of those murders. The black murder rate was 38.8 per 100,000. Based on their murder rate in 1986, Hispanics committed an estimated 2,242 murders in 1993. This is 10.7 per 100,000. 76 percent of the U.S. is White (European-American) and they committed only 29.5 percent of the murders. On the other hand, Black and Hispanic minorities combined constitute 21 percent of the population, yet they committed a staggering 68.7 percent of the murders in the U.S. during 1993. This means, on a per capita basis, a Black person is 12.3 times as likely to commit murder as a White person. Since this information is not deemed “politically correct” and would perhaps offend the black segment of society, it is offset by falsely inflating the per capita basis for whites by backhandedly including Hispanics and other ethnic groups.

Here are some more shocking statistics:

More than 1,600 Whites are murdered by Blacks each year.

Blacks murder Whites at 18 times the rate Whites murder Blacks.

About 1 million Whites were murdered, robbed, assaulted, or raped by Blacks in 1992.

In the last 30 years, 170 million violent and nonviolent crimes were committed by Blacks against Whites in the U.S.

Blacks under 18 are more than 12 times more likely to be arrested for murder than Whites the same age.

Some 90% of the victims of race crimes are Whites.

Blacks commit 7.5 times more violent interracial crimes than Whites, although they comprise only one-seventh of the White population.

On a per-capita basis, blacks commit 50 times more violent crimes than Whites.

Some 27 million nonviolent crimes were committed in the U.S. in 1992 alone. 31% of the robberies involved Black offenders and White victims; only 2% involved White offenders and Black victims.

1.3 million of the 6.6 million violent crimes committed in the U.S. each year are interracial.

Between 1964 and 1994, more than 45,000 people were killed in interracial murders in the U.S., compared to 58,000 Americans killed in Vietnam and 38,000 killed in Korea.

The above stats were collected by an Australian reporter, Neil Sheehan, who dug out half-concealed U.S. crime figures for an article in the Sydney Morning Herald (May 2, 1995). The contents of his article, he commented, could not possibly be published or discussed in the U.S. mainstream media. One wonders how many Whites have to be killed by Blacks before the N.Y. Times and Dan Rather break the conspiratorial silence about the number of White casualties in the guerrilla war being waged against them by Blacks. Paved With Good Intentions, a book by Jared Taylor, also studies crime statistics by race. It must be stressed that Blacks make up only 12% of the population according to the 1990 U.S. census (and Black males about 6%), but they commit a vastly disproportionate number of violent crime. Mr. Taylor reveals: 1) 58% of all arrests for weapons violations are Blacks. 2) 46% of all arrests for violent crimes are Blacks. 3) 73% of all “justified self-defense” killings are committed by Blacks. 4) 60.5% of all Blacks are armed with some type of weapon at all times. 5) 98% of all youths arrested for gun fights in Atlanta are Blacks.

In 1989, the FBI reported the following:

A) Blacks commit 8 times more assaults than Whites. B) Blacks commit 9 times more rapes than Whites. C) Blacks commit 14 times more murders than Whites. D) Blacks commit 19 times more armed robberies. E) Black neighborhoods are 35 times more violent than White neighborhoods. F) There were 629,000 interracial attacks committed in 1985 (the last year the FBI “chose” to report this information). Some nine out of every ten were committed by Blacks against Whites. G. Black males (6% of the population) make up 46% of the nation’s prison population.

It can be seen that in only one category of crimes, driving under the influence, are Blacks actually underrepresented, and even this is only by one percent. Perhaps this statistic can best be explained by the fact that Blacks own fewer cars than do Whites percentage-wise. It can further be seen that overall, Blacks are committing 2 1/2 times the amount of crimes percentage-wise as their population in America and as far as violent crimes are concerned, they are committing almost four times as much as their population percentage-wise. As far as murders go, Blacks are committing almost five times as many as their population percentage-wise. Why isn’t this ever reported on the news? Furthermore, it must be pointed out once again that many crimes go unsolved or are unreported, particularly those involving random acts. Therefore, the number of crimes that Blacks and Hispanics are committing may actually be much higher.

Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr., 17, is watches Orange County District Attorney General Jim Woodall speak during his first appearance in Hillsborough, N.C., Friday, March 14, 2008. Lovette is charged with first degree murder and held without bond in the murder of North Carolina University student body president Eve Carson. Lovette was also charged today of first degree murder for Abhijit Mahato, a doctoral student at Duke University, in Durham, N.C. (AP Photo/Sara D. Davis)

The high school dropouts were convicted of crimes but put back on the street by a system that failed to notice when they were arrested again.

Both are now behind bars, held without bail and charged with murdering two college students.

“We’ve got a lot of kids out there who have a sense of helplessness, with a propensity for violence,” said Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez. “We need to look at the reasons our youth are doing this.”

Lovette, 17, is accused in the slaying of a graduate student at the Duke University, and he and Atwater, 21, are charged in the death of the University of North Carolina student body president.

A third defendant, 19-year-old Stephen Oates, was arrested a few days after the Duke student’s death and charged with murder and more than a dozen robberies. His next court appearance is set for Monday.

Abhijit Mahato, a doctoral student in computational mechanics at Duke, was found in his apartment a few blocks off campus in January. His autopsy said the 29-year-old from Tatangar, India, was shot at point-blank range in the forehead as a pillow was held tightly against his face. His wallet, cell phone and iPod were missing.

Eve Carson was also shot in the head, once in the right temple, her wallet and keys missing. Her body was found March 5 in the middle of a residential street in Chapel Hill about a mile from the North Carolina campus. The death of the student body president sparked a widespread outpouring of grief that led thousands to gather for two campus memorial services the day her body was identified.

The tragedies have brought together two renowned centers of academic excellence separated by just eight miles and defined most often by their fierce rivalry on the basketball court.

Atwater and Lovette were both students at Durham’s Charles E. Jordan High, a school with a diverse student body and test scores that exceed the state and national average. The school produces success stories: Last week, a senior from Jordan won a $100,000 scholarship in the annual Intel Science Talent Search.

Atwater left in 2002; Lovette dropped out sometime last year. After pleading guilty to misdemeanor larceny and breaking and entering for crimes committed last November, Lovette received a two-year suspended sentence and was placed on probation Jan. 16.

Prosecutors believe he and Oates killed Mahato two days later. In the six weeks that followed, authorities in Durham arrested Lovette several times and charged him with nine different crimes, including burglary, car theft, breaking and entering, and resisting arrest. He was released after each arrest.

“I’m not going to second guess what a judge or a prosecutor in another district did,” said Jim Woodall, the prosecutor in neighboring Orange County, where Carson was killed. “It’s a tough job. You have to make hundreds of judgment calls every day. Nobody has a crystal ball.”

The state Department of Correction said efforts to revoke Lovette’s probation hadn’t begun because he had been on probation for such a short time. Robert Lee Guy, director of the state Division of Community Corrections, said probation officers don’t automatically receive information alerting them when one of their charges pleads guilty or is convicted of another crime.

But Guy said the state is investigating Atwater’s case. Convicted in 2005 of breaking and entering, he violated his probation last June when he was convicted — and sentenced again to probation — on a gun charge. It wasn’t until last month that he was served with a probation violation warrant.

Atwater’s court appearance on the probation violation was March 3 — two days before Carson’s death. The case was assigned to the wrong courtroom, Guy said, and rescheduled for later this month. Atwater was also supposed to be under a stricter form of probation that required him to meet weekly with his probation officer, Guy said.

“Most of the time those reviews take place and everything looks above board,” Guy said. “The rarities (are) like this case. … Most of them are not the tragedy of this nature, when you take someone’s life.”

Guy said he can’t speculate whether Carson’s slaying could have been avoided if the system had worked as intended, but he acknowledges: “I think that’s the million-dollar question on everybody’s mind.”

Should either Lovette or Atwater be convicted of first-degree murder, they could fall through one final crack: neither is likely to face a death sentence.

For Lovette, it’s a guarantee. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of people under 18. For Atwater, it might as well be; since North Carolina resumed executions in 1984 after a break of more than two decades, jurors in Orange County haven’t sentenced anyone to death.

“There are a lot of people who are against the death penalty in Orange County, and there isn’t anything wrong with that,” said Superior Court Judge Carl Fox, who unsuccessfully sought execution in about three dozen cases during his 20 years as the county’s district attorney. “A significant part of the population really aren’t firm believers in the death penalty.”

ORLANDO, Fla. — A Central Florida man was ambushed and beaten with an aluminum baseball bat for a $1 bill in a random attack at a busy gas station.

Investigators said three men approached Nate Curtis at a Hess station gas station pump located on South Goldenrod Road in Orange County and wanted money.

“They asked me for a dollar and I said, ‘I don’t have a dollar,'” Curtis said. “Then, I was putting my wallet away and one of them had a baseball bat and hit me across the head. Another guy came out of nowhere and poured beer in my eyes and that was it, I couldn’t see because my eyes were burning.”

Curtis was then beaten by the men.”I have two fractures in my jaw, a fractured cheek bone and stitches in my chin,” Curtis said.Detectives said Curtis was randomly targeted.”These guys can victimize you just as easily as they did this gentleman,” Orange ounty sheriff’s Detective Jason Sams said.”It makes me sick that people are out there and like that,” Curtis said. “The should be behind bars. They shouldn’t be allowed out among people who just want to mind their own business and be in peace.”Curtis said the men were parked at the pump and were just looking for someone to beat up.Surveillance video captured one of the three men inside the store.Anyone with information about the crime is urged to call Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS.Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

In the first set of photos, he tries to use Eve Carson’s ATM card at a drive-through teller with a second person of interest potentially sitting in the vehicle’s backseat. In the second set, he is seen entering a Chapel Hill convenience store, where authorities say he was the only customer in the store as Carson’s ATM card was used. (AP Photos)

Police have released more images of a man who they think twice tried to use Eve Carson’s ATM card in Chapel Hill, N.C., the night she was murdered near the University of North Carolina campus.

Investigators say at the very least, this man may know something about what happened between 1:30 a.m. March 5 — the last time Carson’s friends saw the 22-year-old student body president alive — and 5 a.m. March 5, when a pair of residents called 911 to report hearing several gunshots in their neighborhood.

He also may be the person who pulled the trigger, according to police.

Chapel Hill police, now drawing on broader law enforcement resources across North Carolina, released a second pair of surveillance stills Monday night.

Those stills show a young, black male with long hair and wearing jeans, sneakers and a black coat over a black shirt as he walks into a convenience store moments before someone uses Carson’s ATM card.

Chapel Hill Police Chief Brian Curran said Monday night that the man was the only person in the store when Carson’s ATM card was used.

The convenience store images follow two stills released this weekend that showed a young, black male with long hair tucked beneath a Houston Astros baseball cap. The man is driving a car — perhaps Carson’s Toyota Highlander, police say — as he stops in front of a drive-through ATM and tries to make a withdrawal.

Police believe the person in the store and in the car is the same man. On Monday, Chapel Hill police also announced that there was potentially a second person of interest, after a close examination of the drive-through ATM photos showed what may be the outline of a second person sitting behind the driver’s seat.

“Questions have surfaced about an individual possibly seated in the rear passenger seat of the vehicle,” Chapel Hill police said in a statement Monday. “We do believe there is a second unidentified male seated in the rear seat. We have been exploring ways to enhance the quality of this photo in an effort to learn more about this person.”

Police said Monday evening that Carson’s ATM card was being used at both locations, but declined to say whether money was successfully withdrawn from Carson’s account. Authorities have maintained since Carson’s body was found last week that the murder appears to be a random crime.

Carson’s sport utility vehicle was found parked a few blocks from her off-campus home Thursday afternoon, more than a day after her shooting death. Authorities hope that someone who saw the man in the photographs either at the store or in the vehicle will come forward.

The UNC board of trustees has offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in Carson’s killing. As student body president, the pre-medicine double biology and political science major also served as a board member.

Search warrants filed in the case revealed that police found Carson’s cell phone near a shopping center on the road that connects the towns of Chapel Hill and Durham. Authorities have not recovered her wallet or keys and are searching a student laptop and memory cards from her campus office.